Roxie Borowski

Name: Roxanne "Roxie" Borowski

Gender: Female

Age: 18

Grade: 12th

School: George Hunter High School

Hobbies and Interests: Theater arts, makeup effects, horror media, music, social media, 80s-90s pop culture, mythological creatures, scare acting, anti-bullying, yoga

Appearance: Roxie is a natural brunette, with thicker, curlier hair texture. At the beginning of the school year, she kept it shoulder length, usually loose. However, sometime during winter break, she has styled it into a chin-length side-cut, with the right side shaved. Roxie is fond of her current hairstyle, though she did consider dying it. For now, though, she has kept it its natural color. Occasionally she also backcombs it, making it more fluffy.

Roxie is of predominantly Ashkenazi ancestry. Her skin tone is a warmer, more yellow shade. She has some facial scarring from her accident in elementary, namely in the form of a red splotch just below the left side of her hairline, caused by a scrape. However, the color has faded enough that Roxie sometimes has to point it out for people to notice. Otherwise, her skin is healthy, as she takes the time to properly clean it to help with her hobbies. Roxie has a long face, with thin lips, large protruding brown eyes, and an aquiline nose with a bump from when it was previously broken. Because she is skilled with makeup, she takes the time to apply each day; one typical look features a smokey cut crease with plum eyeshadow and black winged liner for the eyes, and a dark color for the lips. While her eyebrows are naturally thin, she fills them into a thick arch using dark makeup. While Roxie loves false eyelashes, she only reserves them for special occasions and instead uses mascara to achieve a similar effect.

She has a tall, lanky build, at 5’11 and 150 pounds. Roxie has minimal curvature to her body, with a bit of toning due to her keeping up with her physical therapy. In elementary, she had a transfemoral amputation and wears an above-the-knee prosthesis. It is of the VGK brand and works mechanically. Roxie still owns a pair of black foldable forearm crutches, usually for when she’s relaxing around the house or when it’d be inconvenient to wear her prosthesis. She has a few extra scars on her body; the ones most visible are a white patch on her left elbow and a mismatched red and white pattern around the knuckles of her left hand. Roxie wears black nail polish regularly.

Roxie’s interest in 80s-90s pop culture is reflected somewhat in her dress sense. She has a favorite black motorcycle jacket that she found at a thrift store and wears as much as possible. She has a preference for dark colors; she wears a lot of black, with some occasional grey, blue, or red thrown in for contrast. Her usual outfit includes a t-shirt, cargo shorts or jeans, and boots adjusted to fit with her prosthesis. While she would try to hide her leg when she was younger, nowadays she doesn’t mind wearing shorts, and even feels more empowered being able to do so. For accessories, she tends to wear chokers, chained jewelry, and fingerless gloves. Roxie generally prefers a more androgynous appearance, as she usually doesn’t feel comfortable in more girlish outfits.

On the day of the trip, Roxie wore a black tank top with the classic cover of the Goosebumps book “Night of the Living Dummy”. She layered a black mesh top underneath. For pants, she wore charcoal jean shorts. In addition to her favorite jacket, she wore black fingerless gloves, a long chained necklace with a cameo pendant, and dark sunglasses tucked into a pocket. As always, she was wearing black combat boots with black socks. While she wore her prosthesis, her crutches were folded up neatly inside her bag.

Biography: Roxanne “Roxie” Borowski was born to Asher and Rachel Borowski in Chattanooga, TN, the younger of two siblings. Her father works as a travel agent, while her mother works at a local pet spa. Her sister, Zelda, is two years older. The family is of Ashkenazi ancestry, and it has played a significant part in Roxie’s upbringing. The family practices Reform Judaism, and while they aren’t strictly religious Roxie’s childhood was full of connections to Jewish culture. For example, while they acknowledged Christmas in a secular way, the way they typically spent the day was to go to dinner and a movie with friends and family.

One of Roxie’s fondest memories, as she was growing up, was that her family would make their own costumes. They celebrated both Purim and a secular Halloween, so there were at least two holidays where she and her family would dress up throughout her life. While Zelda was more interested in sewing, Roxie enjoyed acting out various roles. Her preschool had some age-appropriate skits that she participated in, which helped with Roxie’s interest in performing.

Late in Roxie’s first-grade year, she was involved in an accident. She, Zelda, and a friend were out biking one weekend, with the friend’s mother supervising them. However, she had to answer the phone, leaving her distracted. The children had wandered out further onto the road. Unfortunately, a pickup truck driver was on the same road, and, while the other children were able to move out of the way in time, Roxie wasn’t. The cause of the accident was determined to be caused by a mixture of the driver going over the speed limit, the brakes on the truck not being properly repaired, and the children’s disregard for safety rules. Roxie was swiftly taken to the hospital. Some of the damages included scrapes, while her nose was also broken. However, the most significant injury was to her left leg. It had been shattered in multiple places, making proper recovery uncertain. The medical personnel broached the possibility of amputation as a treatment, as there was a significant risk of infection and blood vessel thinning. However, there were still concerns associated with it; above-knee surgical amputations tend to have more risks, leaving it a last resort option. While her family had their concerns, it was quickly determined by the doctors that she needed an immediate transfemoral amputation, as the medical risks of her going without it were high. After the surgery, Roxie began recovering from it at a more steady pace and learned how to use forearm crutches. Later, she was fitted for a prosthesis.

This was a difficult period for both Roxie and her family. She frequently went in and out of the hospital for examinations and later physical therapy throughout second and third grade. Money was often tight at the Borowski household in large part due to the treatments. While she wasn’t bullied as much, Roxie did feel alienated from her class as a result of her disability. She also had a few counseling appointments, to help with the grief of losing a limb. However, she coped with it by developing a sense of humor about it, even at a young age. For example, she’d make up stories about her leg, such as it being eaten by an alligator.

During her recovery, Roxie often watched movies in the hospital and later at home. Typically these were either TV airings or physical copies at home or in the hospital. While her parents did pick out age-appropriate movies for her, she would occasionally sneak ones for older audiences when they weren’t looking. However, one that stuck with her during her recovery was the 1991 film The Addams Family. While she was too young to understand most of the darker and more risque humor, she enjoyed the movie for its quirky, spooky tone. Another she liked was the 1989 film Batman, for similar reasons. While she couldn’t watch much in the way of horror due to her age, her tastes started to formulate around this time. Particularly, she liked monsters, dark elements, and strong special effects. The first horror movie she remembers watching was the 1981 American Werewolf in London on TV in the summer after third grade. Despite only catching the tail-end of the movie, what she saw intrigued her, particularly when she later found out that the transformation scenes in the movie were all practical effects. This was the beginning of her appreciation for movies that would last for years.

Her interest in monsters in media also led her to read about various supernatural creatures in folklore and superstition. Much of her time, when not watching movies, was with a book discussing themes like cryptozoology, parapsychology, folklore, and UFOs. Some of her favorites growing up were some of the odder ones, such as the vampire pumpkins of southeastern Europe, various yokai from Japanese mythology, and the Australian Bunyip. A large part of why she likes monsters is because she finds the mythology and stories around them fascinating.

Starting around fifth grade, Roxie began participating in children’s theater. Her parents felt that she needed an extracurricular activity, and, given her interest in movies, felt that acting would be appropriate, especially since she had prior acting experience when she was younger. While she did get some people judging her for her disability, feeling it wasn’t accurate to the characters she was portraying, with a bit of encouragement she pushed forward. Her first major acting role was in a children’s production of Cinderella, where she was the Fairy Godmother. She gained a passion for performing as a way of self-expression and entertaining others, enjoying how they reacted to her work.

Around this same time, Roxie also began an interest in makeup and costuming. While most of the costumes were provided by theater staff, she did assist in picking them out. Meanwhile, many of her peers were already beginning an interest in fashion and makeup. Roxie enjoyed playing around with makeup, not just for fashion purposes, but as a way of expressing herself. Finally, Roxie accidentally checked out a book about stage makeup, thinking it was one about acting techniques. Nonetheless, she enjoyed reading it and tried to follow the instructions with her own cosmetics in her room. Initially, it was basic highlighting and contouring, which she had difficulty with. But as she improved, she began working on old age makeup, animal face paint and making her face more masculine. She enjoyed how her face changed with a bit of makeup. Eventually, this spurred her into learning more about FX makeup as well as cosmetics. As she read more books and looked online on the subject, she learned how to make and apply prosthetics, make facial hair, and make a life mask at home. Because of her interest in monsters, much of her FX makeup focused on nonhuman creatures. The first one that she ever actually took a picture of was a zombie with a huge gash across the cheek. Her parents, when they initially learned of Roxie’s newfound interest, were somewhat concerned with her overt focus on monsters at first, but otherwise encouraged it, bringing supplies for her when she needed them. As time went on, her skill with the materials improved and she was able to make more finely detailed designs. Her experience working with makeup has given her good control over her hands in general, which she has happily pointed out before.

As she grew into Junior High, her interest in movies began leaning more directly into horror. She made it a point to watch a new one every week, preferably at night time. One week it would be Fright Night, the next Nightmare on Elm Street, and another it would be Night of the Living Dead. What prompted this switch was simply accessibility; now she was older, it was easier to find and watch such movies. A lot of her favorites are from the 1980s and 1990s, as she enjoys the aesthetics of those eras, as well as the more overt focus on practical effects over CGI. Her dress sense began to match, as she started to wear dark clothing and makeup more often. Roxie’s parents were again concerned, wondering if she was depressed with the focus on horror and the fashion change. However, she dissuaded them by telling them about her interests and making it a point to illustrate that there was nothing to worry about.

Roxie’s interest in 80s and 90s pop culture didn’t just extend to horror but in other ways. She found that a lot of movies she liked were from this time period in general. One of her all-time favorites is Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, which she has quoted endlessly. Another she likes is Labyrinth. While she admits it’s a time period that tends to be looked at with a bit of an idealized nostalgia, she enjoys the aesthetic as a whole, from its occasional campiness by today’s standards, to the synths in music, to the various celebrities from that era. She also enjoys media that clearly tries to homage that era; she’s been a major fan of Stranger Things since it was released and has often linked to memes about it on social media.

Naturally, much of her music tastes follow suit. Roxie adores goth bands like The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees, feeling that they speak to her. She is a noted fan of dark wave in general; she loves Depeche Mode in particular and owns a small number of band t-shirts of them. However, she also tends to listen to a wide variety of genres typically from the 80s and 90s; a typical evening will feature a playlist of George Michael, Madonna, Rob Zombie, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, among other performers, as well. While her tastes are more on the retro side, she has listened to more recent artists as well, including She Wants Revenge. She often has it in the background while she’s working on homework or a project, and feels it helps make making tasks more fun.

In Freshman year of high school, she overheard a conversation between her parents about her disability. Roxie had discovered just how stressed out her parents were as she was growing up, as they sometimes had trouble paying for her medical expenses. This gave Roxie some guilt, and so she was determined to start working as soon as possible so that she would be able to pay for things like art supplies easily. Since it was the beginning of the school year, she found ads seeking people to work in a local haunted house attraction. With her parent’s permission, she contacted the company, and, while they felt she was too young to be employed by them, they encouraged her to seek out volunteer opportunities, as many houses have volunteer options for teenagers. While mildly disappointed, she followed this recommendation, and soon volunteered at a different house. She enjoyed the experience the same way she enjoyed stage acting, in that she liked entertaining the guests. Roxie also learned more about FX makeup and practical effects here, which she applied to her own projects. She applied again for the next year and had a good time working as well. Unfortunately, it was shut down the following year, and so she applied to the original house as a seasonal employee, to which they agreed.

Like many teens, Roxie took to social media. She had begun uploading pictures of her FX makeup projects online earlier in Junior High, showing what she was working on and what she made. However, she took to YouTube the same year she began an interest in scare acting, choosing the name “Roxie and the Fangshees.” Her first few attempts at videos were fairly simple; the first one was a YouTube Poop style video of an episode of the Goosebumps TV series, while the next two were her exaggeratedly lip-syncing to Taylor Dayne’s “Tell It to My Heart” and Dead Or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)”. However, she soon got the idea to also use YouTube to show off her FX makeup. Her earliest videos of this nature were simply her wearing the makeup, talking to the camera in-character. However, since she got questions on how she made it, she quickly switched to tutorials on the subject. Some of these are on basic effects topics, such as how to make your own life mask or how to apply facial hair, with Roxie’s own opinions on the subjects. Many are about transforming yourself into a character or creature, usually with a horror bent. Because she sometimes can have trouble getting the supplies together for a new video, she also has uploaded vlogs, usually focusing on horror media such as a recent movie she’d watched. Some of her most popular makeup videos are of her recreating an illustration from Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark, her try at making herself resemble Barb’s corpse in Stranger Things, and her take on a gothic clown. Her more popular vlogs include her discussing creepypasta cliches, her talking about The VVich, and a recounting of old drama that happened on a video game wiki. She makes it a point to upload with some kind of content every week, and, while she isn’t popular as of yet, she has networked and worked hard enough to gain a modest amount of subscribers.

As a student, Roxie is well-liked. She’s generally seen as upbeat, enthusiastic, and hard-working. She does have a love of teasing and pranking people, but she’s usually benign in her humor. For example, she once put a toy tarantula inside a friend’s locker. By her admission, the worst thing she did was recommend a Troma movie as a joke. While she enjoys trolling her friends, it’s typically in good fun, and she backs off when she knows something is making them upset. That said, there have been times where her sense of humor has rubbed people the wrong way. Usually, she tries to respectfully apologize when she realizes it. Part of the issue here is that she tends to deal with stressful subjects using gallows humor, such as cracking jokes shortly after the 2016 election or the occasional self-deprecating joke about her own disability. While she typically doesn't mean anything mean-spirited by it, sometimes such humor has come off as somewhat insensitive to those unfamiliar with this coping mechanism. Additionally, she does have a stubborn, arrogant side of her personality. Usually, this means that she can be ambitious when it comes to her projects, and she prides herself on the fact that she’s often busy, between projects, working, and school. Roxie is also set in her beliefs, in that she understands how she views herself and others. The downside is that she can get overconfident and realize that something is not within her capabilities at that point. Usually, when this happens, she gets frustrated. Otherwise, however, she is reasonably well-liked, particularly as a member of the Film and Drama Clubs. One of Roxie's virtues is that she typically tends to be highly accepting of others' harmless habits and interests, in large part because she is Jewish, has a physical disability, and is interested in things others find unusual. While she is someone who is set in her own beliefs, she tends to far from judgemental when it comes to dealing with other cliques or students who don't share her interests. In terms of grades, she does average, though she consistently gets high grades in classes with a more creative focus.

Because Roxie has a dim view on bullies, she’s also a member of the Anti-Bullying club. She feels that bullies only act out because they want to feel superior, and that the bullying problem on campus was severe enough that something needed to be done, even just as a student. Her activities in the club include raising awareness, encouraging de-escalation techniques, and getting involved in events the club is hosting. She had hoped to see progress on this issue on campus before her graduation, even if any major changes would happen the following school year. One problem Roxie has experienced is that, when she confronts bullies, she sometimes has a hard time ending an argument to her stubborn personality. While typically not someone who is harsh or insulting, she has a difficult time dropping the topic, which has previously created a problem when trying to defuse arguments, as people think she just reiterates things. As noted, she's reasonably open-minded about others, but has a hard time dropping subjects she is passionate about. That said, Roxie has done some research into proper ways of de-escalating arguments, which, as noted, she has promoted as part of her anti-bullying club activities. While she still has difficulty with actually putting her knowledge to use from time to time, she has a reasonable amount of understanding of the subject.

Her relationship with her disability has been love-hate. On one hand, it has given her grief. Sometimes people ask inappropriate questions about it, or define her as the girl with one leg. Sometimes she still feels phantom pain, or the skin on her residual limb drying out. On the other, she has coped with it through humor and her art. Roxie has kept her sense of humor on the subject, such as her telling people that her prosthesis actually a sign that she’s a cyborg sent from the future to protect John Connor, or joking about attaching a gun to her leg like in Planet Terror. When asked to write about her life experiences earlier this year, she came to the conclusion that part of the reason why she likes horror and monsters is that it’s one of the genres that can be relatable to her. Roxie feels horror as a genre often focuses on outcast and maligned characters as protagonist, antagonist, and tragic victim alike, and, in a sense, it can be a genre that often strikes home with personal and political subject matter. Combined with the vast amount of creativity the genre offers, Roxie feels at home with horror due to her experiences. It’s no coincidence that a fair portion of her FX work based on original characters focuses on body horror themes, because, as she concluded in this paper, it is her using a coping mechanism to re-contextualize her childhood near-death experience and hospitalization. She’s come to peacefully accept that some might find her odd for her disability and interests and is assured in who she is.

She’s received further checkups for her leg, as well as kept up with physical therapy in the form of doing push-ups and cardio. This has given her some upper body strength. However, last year this fell on the wayside due to Roxie being busy with more things than usual. In addition to her not keeping up with her physical therapy, she did show signs of stress and fatigue, including a few times when she was relying on energy drinks to stay awake. When it was brought up with her doctor over the summer, he suggested that she set aside a specific time meant for relaxing and exercising. In Senior year, she has started to join the Yoga club for stretching, taking the advice to heart. She’s capable of doing the beginner’s stretches easily and appreciates the time to just stretch and relax as a supplement to her regular exercise. Her stress has gone down some, as, while she still feels antsy when she feels she isn't putting her time into a project, she has managed her projects a bit better as well as kept up with stretching. Generally, Roxie tends to get antsy when she isn't working on a project in some capacity. This usually results in mild irritation and restlessness, as Roxie tends to consider herself as someone who takes action and doesn't enjoy feeling useless. While this resulted in her overexerting herself last year, Roxie feels more at ease when she has a busy schedule than when she has plenty of time off.

Roxie’s relationship with her family is positive. While there was some conflict with her sister, it was less out of sibling rivalry and more out of conflicting personalities, Zelda being the more docile and feminine of the two. Roxie, in contrast, is more boisterous and boyish. As for her parents, she adores them. She still works because she feels responsible for their past financial problems, and tries to help them around the house since they are getting older.

While not immediately obvious, Roxie’s Jewish background is more important to her than you’d think. As of Freshman year, she has been following kosher dietary laws, out of a mixture of connecting to her culture and wanting to do her part to not contribute as much to the negative aspects of the meat industry. She has also asked her family questions about their history, wanting to know more about where she came from. Roxie is, in fact, working on an idea for a project that’s currently untitled. It is an ARG web series similar a similar format as previous series like Marble Hornets, focusing on a dybbuk, a type of evil spirit from Jewish mythology. One of the reasons why she wants to write about a dybbuk, in particular, is because she feels Christian themes are oversaturated in horror, and that she got the idea to tell a story about something from her culture’s own folklore. However, she is far from actually starting it, as she’s still sorting out plot events and ideas for it.

Her plans after high school are to begin work as a professional makeup artist. She’s applied to schools and has kept up a solid portfolio showcasing her work. Roxie hopes to work in the film industry to show her designs and ideas. Currently, she works as a cosmetics store as a cashier alongside the seasonal haunted house job.

Advantages: Roxie's experience with stage makeup have given her above average fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, which may mean she can perform tasks that require the use of her hands faster and more easily. She is generally considered an upbeat girl, and, combined with her open-mindedness about others' differences, she may have some less difficulty teaming up with others. Roxie’s confidence and drive give her an edge, in that she knows what she stands for and how she should feel about herself. Roxie has some acting ability, which can be helpful when lying.

Disadvantages: Roxie may have problems with her physical disability, which may decrease her mobility in certain cases. Roxie tends to deal with stressful things using humor, which others may find insensitive or inappropriate. While being hard-working is an advantage, Roxie has historically both felt less comfortable when she isn't working on something as well as mildly overexerting herself, which may make it a drawback in some respects. Roxie is a passionate person, and, while she is a reasonably relaxed person, she may have a harder time backing away from a discussion or dispute because of it.

Designated Number: Female Student No. 36

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Designated Weapon: Ceramic pot w/ trellis containing a poison ivy plant

Conclusion: G036 had better hope she can act her way into getting her hands on a real weapon, because the physical and mental drawbacks are tough enough to overcome without a weapon that's an annoyance at best and as much a hazard to her as anyone else. - Christina Stockton

'The above biography is as written by KamiKaze. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: KamiKaze

Kills: 

Killed By: 

Collected Weapons: Ceramic pot w/ trellis containing a poison ivy plant (assigned weapon, discarded)

Allies: Kayla Harris

Enemies: 

Mid-game Evaluation: Roxie was lost in her thoughts fairly early on, upon awakening, mostly keeping at bay her more reptilian emotions but otherwise inert, not even making much effort to examine her weapon. Based near the Shoe Tree, she was found by Kayla Harris, who approached in peace, and Roxie invited the familiar face to pull up a chair- literally, as Kayla's weapon was a folding chair. The two were quick to find an avenue of conversation not too uncomfortable, they observed what they'd been left with, Roxie slightly bemused by how the terrorists had seen fit to take their phones like school teachers. They were interrupted by the appearance of Nona Hart, who had apparently been robbed.

Post-Game Evaluation: 

Memorable Quotes:

Other/Trivia

 * Roxie's thread titles are themed after references to 80s-90s pop culture.
 * While Roxie's concept was not directly inspired by her, her handler considers Mykie of the YouTube channel "Glam&Gore" as somewhat of a muse for the character; both Roxie's IC channel and Glam&Gore have similar focus in content, and her handler has used the channel, among other sources, as reference for FX skills.

Threads
Below is a list of threads containing Roxie, in chronological order.

The Past: The Trip: V7:
 * Ben Nye the Makeup Guy
 * Room 832: Welcome to the Witching Hour
 * dear army guys come quik there are terrorists- roxie
 * Gotta Fake it 'till You Make It
 * We're Gonna Need a Better Boat
 * Thriller
 * Beat the Devil Out of It

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Roxie Borowski. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''